CHICAGO (AP) It was quite a first impression. The Chicago Blackhawks began their season with a dominant 10-1 victory over two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh, looking very much like a contender to unseat the Penguins atop the NHL.

It has been more mess than masterpiece since that impressive opening night in October.

Chicago begins the second half of the season looking up at the rest of the loaded Central Division, where every team has at least 20 wins and 46 points. Goaltender Corey Crawford and key center Artem Anisimov are on injured reserve, and they don’t appear to be coming back anytime soon. Coach Joel Quenneville has tried several different lines and defensive pairings, but remains in search of the consistency almost taken for granted during his long tenure with the Blackhawks.

“We know our division, our conference is tough,” Quenneville said. “We’re in a terrible spot, a spot we haven’t been in in a long time. We got to do it ourselves and find a way to climb out of it and work our way through it.”

Chicago has made the playoffs every year since Quenneville took over four games into the 2008-09 season. The Blackhawks won it all in 2010, 2013 and 2015, but lost in the first round of the postseason in each of the last two years, including an embarrassing sweep by Nashville last April.

If Quenneville and company can’t get back on track in the final part of the season, the organization could be headed for wholesale changes.

“We’ve had some games where we want to be and then some nights where we’re way off,” center Nick Schmaltz said after Sunday’s 4-1 victory over Edmonton. “If we can find that consistency where we bring the same effort every night – a full 60 minutes is huge. Tonight was a great showing of that. Hopefully we can build off that and continue to put together a strong performance.”

The return of Crawford and Anisimov could provide a big lift. Crawford (2.27 goals-against average, .929 save percentage) was working on perhaps his best season when he was placed on IR on Dec. 27. Anisimov, who has 13 goals, was placed on the injured list two days later.

Crawford and Anisimov are out with upper-body injuries, and Quenneville has provided scant details on what is bothering each player or when they might return. He has indicated Anisimov is closer to coming back than Crawford, and each player should be able to return this season.

“Over the course of seasons, we’ve had some years relatively injury-free,” Quenneville said. “This year was looking pretty clean for a while, but they can happen.”

While the injuries and standings are cause for concern for the Blackhawks, there have been some positive signs recently. Vinnie Hinostroza has three goals and five assists in 11 games since he was promoted from the minors last month, adding a speedy presence to Chicago’s top line alongside Jonathan Toews and Brandon Saad. Young defenseman Jordan Oesterle has three goals in his last five games.

Chicago (20-15-6) also should be able to take on some money at the NHL trade deadline on Feb. 26. Marian Hossa has been on long-term injured reserve all season, creating some valuable salary-cap space for the Blackhawks as they try to chase down a playoff spot in their crowded division with just 11 points separating Chicago and Central-leading Winnipeg.

“The other day we were plus-five and now we’re plus-five and now we’re still chasing it,” Quenneville said after the win over the Oilers. “We got some work to do. Obviously you’re going to have to have a good strong second half to get in.”

The Los Angeles entered Monday’s game in Minnesota as one of the six teams in that chaotic scramble for one of the final three playoff spots still up for grabs in the Western Conference.

Trailing by a goal with less than a minute to play — after giving up three consecutive goals to squander what had been a two-goal lead — it seemed as if they were going to leave two important points on the table.

It was at that point that Dustin Brown sent the game to overtime with a late goal, setting the stage for Jeff Carter to score the game-winner in overtime and lifting the Kings to a 4-3 win.

It was Carter’s second goal of the game and continued his strong play since returning to the lineup in late February from injury. In 12 games since returning to the lineup Carter now has eight goals and 10 total points. The Kings are also now 7-4-1 with him back in the lineup. He is still an impact player and having him healthy is going to certainly be huge for the Kings down the stretch as they push for a playoff spot.

Make no mistake, this was a huge win for the Kings when it comes to getting that playoff spot. They entered the night with 84 points, tied with the Anaheim Ducks and Dallas Stars. The Kings were sitting in the second wild card spot due to tiebreaker but were able to jump back ahead of the Ducks for the third spot in the Pacific Division.

That means the Ducks fall into the second wild card spot, sitting two points ahead of the Stars and three points ahead of the St. Louis Blues. Colorado with 86 points is also very much in that group.

Speaking of the Avalanche, even though the Wild let a point slip away tonight by giving up the late goal and losing in overtime they still picked up point and were able to move four points ahead of the Avalanche for the No. 3 spot in the Central Division.

One day ago the Boston Bruins signed US Olympian Ryan Donato to an entry level contract.

On Monday, he was given an opportunity to immediately slide into their lineup against the Columbus Blue Jackets and he did not waste any time making an impact.

After recording four shots on goal in the first period, Donato broke through with his first NHL goal in the second period (on his fifth shot of the game) when he blasted a one-timer home on a give-and-go with Torey Krug.

All of that is happening against a Blue Jackets team that entered the night having won seven in a row, while the Bruins were playing without Patrice Bergeron, Rick Nash and Charlie McAvoy. Pretty deep team they have in Boston.

Donato added two more assists after scoring his first goal.

Unfortunately for the Bruins they were unable to hold on to that 3-1 lead and allowed Columbus to come from behind for the 5-4 overtime win.

Prior to signing with Bruins (and along with his time on the US Olympic team) Donato had been playing his collegiate hockey at Harvard. He scored 26 goals and added 17 assists in 29 games this season.

NBCSN’s coverage of the 2017-18 season continues on Monday night when the Los Angeles Kings visit the Minnesota Wild. Puck drop is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET. You can catch all of the action on NBCSN or on our Live Stream.

Much like the NFL’s headaches when it comes to what is or isn’t a catch, a simple stroll around Hockey Twitter will often unearth loud groans about goalie interference reviews. At least when people aren’t grumbling about offside goal reviews, that is.

From the viewpoints of reporters on hand for the latest round of GM meetings, it sounds like the league is at least attempting to sort out the latest mess.

Granted, you could sense some of the fatigue on this issue from what Lightning GM Steve Yzerman had to say about it, via NHL.com’s Dan Rosen:

“You can clarify the standards, but each referee and everyone, you and I, has a different opinion,” Yzerman said. “Within that room everyone has a little different opinion on did it impact the goaltender. It’s subjective. No one is ever going to agree 100 percent.”

Fair enough, but much of the frustration stems from the sheer confusion at hand, as there doesn’t seem to be a clear standard. It’s one thing to disagree with how an infraction is called, but at the moment, many feel like there’s far too much variation in calls.

With that in mind, some GMs apparently hope to tweak the process by, ideally, limiting the number of people who are making the snap decisions on goalie interference:

It sounds like they’re going to start centralizing the decisions on goaltender interference reviews out of the NHL’s video reviews. An attempt for more consistency.

By “centralizing,” it could mean leaving that decision to “The Situation Room,” as Rosen explains:

GMs and NHL have discussed a lot of options to potentially improve the review process for goalie interference to create more consistency, including putting an official in The Situation Room to having The Situation Room make the final call. (2)

The meetings reportedly included test cases for goalie interference, with Rosen noting that GMs and media alike had trouble reaching a consensus on certain examples. That helps to illuminate the challenge at hand, but again, many people would probably be at least a bit happier if it was easier to anticipate what would and would not be called as interference.

Quite a few numbers were thrown around about coaches challenges. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan shared a slide from the NHL that would argue that offside challenges have dropped off, likely because a failed challenge results in a delay of game penalty, but goalie interference remains a drag on the game.

For fans of the sport, it’s about walking the line between getting it right and not grinding too many games to a screeching halt. One might ponder carrying over the delay of game penalty to challenging goalie interference alongside offside reviews, but that might not fly:

One idea brought up today in GM mtgs was a 2-minute penalty for incorrect goaltender interference challenge. Colin Campbell didn't seem wild about it, since it's subjective and not black and white like offside. But penalty for offside has resulted in ~50 fewer challenges y/o/y.

Maybe Habs GM Marc Bergevin is correct in saying that just a small number of calls go wrong. Still, these challenges are slowing down games about two minutes at a time. That might not sound like much, though when it happens in the flow of an exciting back-and-forth contest, it can be a real killer.

Let’s hope they improve the process, even if it ends up being a work in progress.